Tara Fanning
An exploration of the presentation of changing identities in Welsh’s
Trainspotting. To what extent is identity fixed?
In Welsh’s novel Trainspotting, there are many variations within the presentation of
identity. These are made most apparent through the protagonist of the novel, Mark Renton,
as well as the other characters that help to convey the ideas of social, national, personal and
sexual identity, with drug culture being a central theme throughout. There is evidence to
suggest that identity is open to alteration, especially shown through the character of
Renton, although there is a contradicting argument that suggests that identity is firmly fixed,
mostly shown through the characters of Franco Begbie and Sick Boy, who show little change
throughout the novel.
Throughout the novel, the reader has observed Mark Renton’s ability to manipulate
situations to his advantage, and is slowly introduced to his warped judgment of society. In
the sub-section Searching For The Inner Man, Renton insists on his “alienation from society”
and the reader may feel encouraged to believe that Renton feels he has control over society
and makes a conscious choice to be ‘different’ rather than accepting failure of societal
order. However, in the sub-section London Crawling, Renton narrates “Ye can be freer here,
no because it’s London, but because it isnae Leith.” This could imply that Renton feels
trapped in Scotland, and rather than consciously rejecting society, as he thought before, his
true identity had been shadowed by his social group; suggesting that, truthfully, society has
a larger influence on Renton than first thought, therefore altering the perceived identity of
Renton by the reader.
Trainspotting is primarily based in Leith, Scotland, and the reader may observe that the
characters' identities are tightly formed around their nationalities. The character of Begbie is
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conveyed to be a stereotypical 'Scottish bloke', proven by his constant aggressive behaviour
and his continuous external judgments of others, calling a stranger a “fuckin plukey-faced
wide-o” or “this wee specky gadge”. This behaviour continues throughout the novel, and
may or may not be related to the fact that Begbie stays very close to home throughout, and
never finds himself venturing away from Leith, compared with Renton's metamorphosis
from being socially excluded in Leith, to his ‘normal’ life in London. This could be Welsh's
comment on the Scottish stereotype, as there is much reference to nationality within
Trainspotting, especially from the character of Renton who refers to the Scots as “The most
wretched, servile, miserable pathetic trash that was ever shat intae creation”, who has been
said to resemble Irvine Welsh himself, as an ex-addict from Scotland. (Guardian Interview)
The themes of sexuality convey a strong sense of identity for most characters in
Trainspotting, including the change of Renton from “looking like a flaccid prick in a barrel-
load ay fannies”, being only interested in heroin, which seems to be a way of escaping the
general everyday tasks of real life, to a 'new Renton' who gains more awareness of his
sexuality than, maybe, first perceived by the reader. Firstly, The First Shag In Ages reveals
Renton with a 'woman' after a long while and Welsh quietly adds a thought from Renton “of
rimming Wallace Mercer's arse” during his climax, suggesting his lean towards
homosexuality. In the section London Crawling, when Renton meets Gi and takes him to a
friend’s party, he is faced with the decision to go home with Gi, or sleep alone. When
Renton decides that he “might end up whappin it up the wee cunt's choc-box yit”, it seems
to be because there are no women available, and this therefore suggests that he is not
influenced by gender when it comes to sex. His sexual identity greatly changes throughout
London Crawling, but it never becomes quite clear to the reader how true Renton really is to
his own sexuality.
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The reader may consider the idea of Mark Renton becoming almost two different
identities within one person. These two personalities of Renton, conveyed throughout the
novel, may be considered to be, simply, a division of 'Rents': 'Junky Renton', or 'Mark':
'Straight Renton'. The reader may get the impression that Rents “had developed the junky's
skill of lying with conviction and could now lie more convincingly than he told the truth”,
which contradicts with Mark's inability to detect, and tell his own, lies. Meanwhile, these
obvious, yet sometimes very discreet, differences in nicknames could be Welsh's method of
altering a character’s persona, as this happens multiple times during the entirety of the
novel. Alternatively, not all characters follow this concept of changing identities with their
nicknames, as revealed by 'Frank', Franco' or 'Begbie'. It would seem that Welsh had
purposely provided these alternate names to certain characters, yet Franco maintains the
same 'hard-man' persona, regardless of the situation he is confronted with; proved when
“Begbie cast a predatory eye over the barman” at a respected bar, at a funeral.
It would seem that Welsh presents his characters’ identities through many different
forms, and to some extent relates Renton to his own life, as a young drug-addict growing up
in 1980’s Scotland. Welsh says that “Renton reflects myself in many ways”, in his interview
for the Guardian newspaper. I think that Renton’s dramatic fluctuations of identity are part
of Welsh’s evidence of social and national influence on personal identity; showing that slight
changes in social group dynamics or a change of scenery can have diverse effects on an
individual’s perception of how they should act. This therefore alters their external identity;
all the while, continuing to keep the same fixed personal identity that most characters show
to the reader through their narrated sub-sections, but are reluctant to reveal to other
people, through the pressure of social status and roles expected to be lived up to within a
group.
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Word Count: 943
Bibliography:
Welsh, I (1993) Trainspotting. Vintage: London.
Gurdian Interview: Trainspotting. Welsh, I (2005)
